


sister

by lisaong



Series: hoshido and nohr [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/M, Familial Love, Invisible Kingdom | Revelation Route, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, Platonic Love, Romantic love, Spoilers, your pick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-04 21:56:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12780360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisaong/pseuds/lisaong
Summary: "Do you love me?" he asks.She looks at him, "I will always love you."(alternatively, the ambiguity of the word 'love' and my inability to write summeries.)





	sister

**Author's Note:**

> This style of writing was somewhat of an experiment for me. This is also my first time writing Takumi in anything and I hope he isn't too OOC. I've kept the actual status of the relationship here purposefully vague (I am good at doing that) so interpret it however you'd like :)
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoy~

“Your stance is wrong. How many times do I have to correct you?” he demands sharply again, contempt a bitter taste in his mouth.

Instead of reacting with anger or tears though, she only readjusts accordingly, eyes patient and soft as she once again nocks an arrow in preparation to shoot. Her compliance makes him angry. This isn’t how a Nohrian should be acting. It isn’t how a princess should be acting. (It isn’t how his sister should be acting.) The meekness is unbecoming, and he tells her so. She looks at him with the same gentle softness and releases the bowstring.

The arrow finds the target. It’s not a bull’s eye, and he scolds her for it even though he knows that level of expectation is unrealistic given how recently she’s picked up archery. But he doesn’t know how to address her without anger and the prospect of praising her without animosity gnaws at a grief too fresh to be forgotten just yet.

“Ten more rounds.” he says coldly and bites his tongue against the twinge of pain in his own chest at the sight of the raw skin on her ungloved hands. She doesn’t protest, and it makes the knot in his throat swell until it threatens to choke him.  
\-------------------------------------------

“Are you insane?!” he hisses at her underneath a beating sun reflecting off of blinding waves. The swaying of the boat and the unrelenting heat does nothing to erase the bone chilling cold that’d bitten at his skin just hours before when the eldest Nohrian princess came for her blood.

“She is my sister.” she answers simply like the previous events had never happened. Like an entire squadron hadn’t showed up screaming for her head. Like the razor sharp edge of a battleaxe had never sung inches past her face.

“She could betray us at any time.” he snaps, stomach boiling with anger. (worry, it’s worry. He could lose her because of this when she’d only just returned.)

Her eyes are gentle but they pierce his soul nonetheless, “She is my sister. I believe in her.”

He leaves with sharp words. She calls out but doesn’t follow him.  
\------------------------------------------

He watches her interact with the Nohrian princesses and with his own little sister, emotions a roiling mess in his stomach. Those are his sworn enemies but seeing them like this, the lines of kingdoms vanishes for a brief moment between one blink and the next. For a moment, all there’s left is four girls smiling together.

“Give her a chance, Lord Takumi.” Kaze had implored him during one of their conversations and he’d snorted dismissively, too afraid that if he hoped for more and she disappointed him, he’d hate her until one of them died with too many regrets and too much unsaid.

This distance is safe and all he wants to manage but as he watches his little sister laugh shyly at something the Nohrian princess said, patiently instructing them on how to twine bright flowers into silvery hair, he begins to wonder if distance is better after all.  
\--------------------------------------------

“I told you not to push yourself.” he snaps and feels guilt choke him as he treats her bleeding fingers, so raw from both archery and swordplay, the skin had finally rubbed down to its capillaries.

“I wanted to make you proud.” she tells him and he drops her hands to ball his own into fists.

“Well stop it, you’ve gone and injured yourself now, you idiot. That does nothing but disappoint me. You can’t practice if you’re hurt.” his eyes are prickling and he wants to leave, but this is his tent and he can’t just storm out of it when he’d dragged her in here himself.

Gentle fingers bump against his forehead and he wants to yell at her because it's easier and less mortifying than crying from the sheer amount of self directed anger building up in his chest as he stares at her bandaged hands.

“I’m sorry.” she says quietly, “I wasn’t thinking and I’ve made you upset.”

He bites his lip and turns his head away but doesn’t move when he feels a tentative hand rub soothing circles into his shoulder.  
\--------------------------------------------

They’re poised right over an abyss when she offers to die in exchange for a chance to save the world. As always, she’s misunderstood their intentions and he has never wanted to punch her more in his entire life. Thankfully, someone else reprimands her with more eloquence than he’ll ever manage and she tilts her head with a sheepish smile.

“Trust me and jump.” she tells them, cool confidence transforming her voice, “We will answer everything afterwards.”

His older brother and sister jump first, vanishing into the shadows. He turns to look at her as he swings his legs over the edge of the rope railing and then there’s nothing but his hands keeping him from the darkness that threatens to swallow him. Her eyes are steely and he reads her conviction in the swirling scarlet of her irises and the soft curve of her lips.

He nods and lets go.  
\---------------------------------------------

Valla sets his nerves on edge but she walks across its destroyed land like she belongs there. Her eyes are no less sad and her voice is no less angry when she speaks of Anankos with Azura but the magic that sweeps across this lost kingdom like swathes of wind welcome her. He is no expert in those arts, but even he can tell that the air changes as she passes through it, curling around her fingers when she fondly brushes his hair out of his eyes.

“Perhaps it is the dragon in her.” his brother says when he asks and he has to settle with that answer because there isn't anything better.  
\-------------------------------------------

The undead Vallite soldiers watch them through eerie purple eyes as they clash in battle. It’s disconcerting, really, to see a style of fighting that is neither Hoshidan nor Nohrian and sings across space like a bird in flight. She is no stranger to the sword, but even Ryoma falters at the sheer alien nature of this new technique and as talented as she is, she cannot match up to the most skilled samurai in Hoshido.

Her soft cry of surprise has him flinching in terror, and he turns with his heart in his throat and vengeance in his eyes, arrows flying like streaks of blue lightning to find their marks dead center in the enemy’s chests. 

His little sister and the youngest princess of Nohr binds her wounds afterwards and she tilts her head at him quizzically with a reassuring smile over a sheet of lavender and Nohrian armor. 

“I’m alright, little brother.” she says and it’s the second Prince of Nohr she gathers into a hug but his eyes she holds.  
\------------------------------------------

He watches her silvery form blur into a streak as Fujin Yumi hums in barely contained approval, clean power wrapping up his fingers around his arm. All four legendary weapons resonate in tandem as Anankos roars one last challenge before she brings her golden blade down against what is left of the once great dragon in a clang of metal against scales. 

The resounding pulse of released energy smashes against his chest like a horse kick and he gulps for air, stumbling against hard Nohrian armor as pale lavender magic warps into a protective buffer around them.

“We won.” Leo says with a note of wonder, “We won. It's done.”

She turns to look at them, fierce and proud and grinning, a glowing beacon against the black backdrop of space.

“My tribe has legends about the wielder of that blade.” her pink haired maid whispers as the rest of both royal families gather to them, “It is said whoever holds it will save the world.”

He looks at her gleaming eyes and sees the promise of a reclaimed future. Of a peaceful future.  
\-----------------------------------------

“Do you love me?” he asks because he needs to know in the same way he needed his father's approval and his mother's attention but could never quite attain like he wanted. The ambiguity of his words doesn't escape him but he doesn't try to clarify.

She sets her bow down and looks at him, quietly considering. Becoming queen has straightened her back and raised her chin and he has to remind himself sometimes that this is still the too naive girl who nearly got herself killed for being too trusting. Bearing the full weight of her stare has never been easy though, even if it's eased by her tousled appearance. She's quiet for so long he begins to regret asking at all. It shouldn't matter what her answer is. (It matters too much but he’ll live). 

He's getting ready to gloss over the question when she reaches out and curls gracile fingers around the back of his neck, drawing him in and bumping their foreheads together gently. 

“I will always love you.” she replies and her response is just as open ended as his question.

He understands anyway and smiles.


End file.
